The Nuclear
Posture Review (NPR) includes a long-term plan that could put nuclear cruise
missiles aboard the new
Zumwalt class (DDG 1000) of stealthy
Navy destroyers,
according to the commander of U.S. Strategic Command.

Air Force
Gen. John Hyten, StratCom chief, said the plan to develop a new, low-yield
nuclear Sea-Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM, or "Slick-em") would not be
limited to using ballistic submarines as the sole launch platform, as many
assumed when the NPR was endorsed by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis earlier
this month.

It's important to know that the NPR, when it talks about the Sea-Launched
Cruise Missile, does not say 'Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile,' " Hyten
said in a Feb. 16 keynote address in Washington, D.C., at the National
Defense University's Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

In response to questions, he said, "We want to look at a number of
options -- everything from surface DDG 1000s into submarines, different
types of submarines" for the SLCMs.

"That's what the president's budget has requested of us -- to go look at
those platforms, and we're going to walk down that path," Hyten said.

The USS Zumwalt, the first of three new stealthy destroyers billed by the
Navy as the world's largest and most technologically advanced surface
combatants, experienced numerous cost overruns in construction and problems
in sea trials. It also broke down while
transiting the Panama Canal in 2016.

The NPR called for the development of two new, low-yield nuclear weapons
-- the SCLM and a new submarine-launched ballistic missile.

Hyten said the U.S. will be modifying "a small number of existing
submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads to provide a prompt, low-yield
capability, as well as pursuing a modern nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise
missile in the longer term."

He added, with some regret, that both are necessary to enhance U.S.
deterrence against growing tactical and strategic nuclear threats from
Russia and China.

"I don't have the luxury of dealing with the world the way I wish it
was," he said. "We, as a nation, have long desired a world with no or at
least fewer nuclear weapons. That is my desire as well. The world, however,
has not followed that path."

U.S. Air Force
General John Hyten, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, testifies in a
Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S.,
April 4, 2017

New developments with the Xian H6K strategic bomber, a version of the
Russian Tupolev Tu-16 twin-engine bomber, has given China a nuclear triad of
bombers, land-based missiles and submarines "for the first time," Hyten
said.

He also cited repeated statements from Russian President Vladimir Putin
about modernizing his own nuclear force and developing a new generation of
low-yield weapons. "Russia has been clear about their intent all along," he
said.

In the question-and-answer period at National Defense University, an
official from the Russian Embassy in Washington challenged the general's
assessment of the threat posed by his country.

Hyten responded, "We listen very closely to what your president says, and
then watch closely" through a variety of means to see Putin's thoughts put
into action. "We have to consider those a threat."

Earlier, he said, "Our adversaries are building and operating these
strategic weapons, not as a science experiment, but as a direct threat to
the United States of America."

In an address preceding Hyten's, Pentagon policy chief David Trachtenberg
said that the new NPR developed for the Trump administration should not be
seen as a divergence from the 2010 NPR adopted by the Obama administration.

"Contrary to some commentary, the Nuclear Posture Review does not go
beyond the 2010 NPR in expanding the traditional role of nuclear weapons,"
said Trachtenberg, deputy undersecretary of defense for policy.

"The goal of our recommendations is to deter war, not to fight one," he
said. "If nuclear weapons are employed in conflict, it is because deterrence
failed, and the goal of the 2018 NPR is to make sure that deterrence will
not fail."

However, "it is clear that our attempts to lead by example in reducing
the numbers and salience of nuclear weapons in the world have not been
reciprocated," Trachtenberg said.

Russia and China have made clear their intentions to "expand the numbers
and capabilities" of their nuclear arsenals, he said.